Asian Studies Commons^™

China Containment In East Asia: Preventative Or Provocative?, Rachel Solsman

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Since the end of World War II, the United States has developed and maintained its strategic alliances with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Taiwan, and has worked to contain China through bolstering its deterrence strategy. However, after a century of humiliation, China is modernizing its military capabilities, improving in trade, and increasing political cohesion to become a regional hegemon. In light of these changes to the international order, the United States must re-evaluate its East Asian alliances and its current military and economic deterrence strategy against China. This paper will discuss the history of these alliances, the rise of …

The Difference Between Life And Death: Intellectual Appeasement And Ideological Remolding Of Philosophers In Mao-Era China, Rosalie Looijaard

Asian Studies: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The Proletarian Cultural Revolution marked the near destruction of Chinese tradition and put intellectuals in China in danger – Chairman Mao Zedong stopped at nothing to ensure anything and anyone that opposed his politics would either be assimilated or removed. Some intellectuals chose to appease him – out of fear or naivete, while others stood firm in their beliefs. This paper examines the similarities and differences between the lives and fates of two philosophers during the rise and fall of Mao Zedong - Feng Youlan and Zhang Dongsun. Both philosophers were amiable towards socialism, even before Mao rose to power. …

Downscaling Of Physical Risks For Climate Scenario Design, Enrico Biffis, Shuai Wang

Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics

Southeast Asia is arguably one of the areas most vulnerable to natural disasters due to its dense population, coastal urbanization, and rainfall variability driven by the local monsoon systems. In this report, we focus on the impact of global warming in the region along four climate dimensions: temperature, precipitation, wind speed and coastal surge. The latter represents the surge of water from the ocean in excess of astronomical tides. Our objective is to downscale the outputs of global climate models to temporal and spatial resolutions of interest to market participants wishing to quantify climate risk vulnerability via climate stress testing …

Taking The Bull By The Horns: Gender Analysis In A Cattle Project In Indonesia, Febrina Prameswari

Sustainability and Social Justice

Women play a crucial role in agriculture, especially in cattle farming. However, gender inequality in livestock production remains a critical issue, as women usually have less engagement with livestock production, less control over finances, and less access to markets. The IndoBeef program in Indonesia was one of the first livestock projects to incorporate gender-specific activities in its implementation. The project used women-only focus groups, utilizing the Women’s Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI) combined with farm production data to address women’s needs in the cattle industry. I conducted a gender analysis of one of IndoBeef’s subsidiary projects, CropCow. The project did …

Step By Step: Understanding Perceptions Of Time And Space In Nepal, Lillian Norton-Brainerd

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Time and space are part of everyone’s daily life; however, these concepts are rarely explicitly discussed. Hegemonic interpretations of time and space are part of capitalist, colonialist structures, thus understanding alternative perceptions is important to resisting these structures. To understand perceptions of time in Nepal, I spent a month in Gre, a small village near Langtang National Park. I interviewed villagers and spent time observing how people spend their time, talk about time, and give directions to physical places. While there is not one perception of time and space, I learned how time and space influence each other. Geography and …

The Relationship Between Humans And Nature In The Himalayas: A Collection Of Poems, Floyd Cornett

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Throughout this research period I lived in the Gurung Village of Sikles in the Lower Annapurna Region of the Himalayan Mountain Range. Here, I grew in my understanding and learnings behind the village people’s relationship with nature, what shapes it, how it is changing, and general attitudes towards it. The Gurung community is traditionally of the Bon religion, but with the impacts of our ever-connecting world, many have also incorporated Buddhism and Hinduism into their beliefs and practices as well. Therefore, many of their traditions include pockets of animism and traditional worship of nature, but many villagers have slowly converted …

Climate Change And Culture On The Mekong, Alexander J. Ham-Kucharski

Student Work

The study focuses on the effects of climate change on the Mekong River Valley countries of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and how fishing industry and culture and tradition is affected by climate change in these communities.

This research was the culminating project from research completed in Dr. Pronoy Rai's INTL 407 Senior Seminar on Climate Change.

Estimating Stranded Coal Assets In China's Power Sector, Weirong Zhang, Mengjia Ren, Junjie Kang, Yiou Zhou, Jiahai Yuan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

China has suffered overcapacity in coal power since 2016. With growing electricity demand and an economic crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic, China faces a dilemma between easing restrictive policies for short-term growth in coal-fired power production and keeping restrictions in place for long-term sustainability. In this paper, we measure the risks faced by China's coal power units to become stranded in the next decade and estimate the associated economic costs for different shareholders. By implementing restrictive policies on coal power expansion, China can avoid 90% of stranded coal assets by 2025.

The Australia, United Kingdom, United States (Aukus) Nuclear Submarine Agreement: Potential Implications, Bert Chapman

FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security, and Social Systems

The AUKUS Nuclear Submarine Agreement seeks to enhance multinational deterrence against Chinese geopolitical assertiveness by giving Australia nuclear powered submarines.

▶ This agreement will pose considerable cost and technical challenges for the Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

▶ Estimates of when Australia will be able to deploy nuclear submarines range from 2030-2040.

▶ The U.S. and its allies will have to make challenging decisions about where to build AUKUS in Australia.

▶ There is debate as to whether efforts to deter China in the Asia-Pacific should include non-Anglosphere countries in that region.

▶ Consideration should be given …

Innovation Strategies In Chinese Smes: An Examination Of The Role Of Family Ownership, And The Social Identity And Regulatory Focus Of Ceos, Tiejiong Fan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Since the reform and opening up, China’s family enterprises have developed rapidly and some family enterprises have entered the period of intergenerational inheritance which may experience some organizational turbulence and face great uncertainty. Meanwhile, more and more CEOs of Chinese enterprises realize that innovation has become the driving force for the transformation and upgrading of SMEs. So, during the intergenerational inheritance and afterwards, whether CEOs of family enterprises make the same decision on innovation strategy as CEOs of non-family enterprises? Whether the second generation CEOs of family enterprises make the same decision on innovation strategy as the founders of family …

Developing Social Entrepreneurial Intention: An Intervention Study In Thailand, Kanyaporn Skutalakul

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Social entrepreneurs are key players that could potentially create new initiatives and long-term solutions for our world to sustain the predicted forthcoming crises of overconsumption. Our world needs both kinds of entrepreneurship, both social and business, to collaboratively stimulate growth in a more balanced manner; however, the creation of social entrepreneurs at a higher rate of success and diffusion remains a challenge. This research proposed a number of new antecedents of social entrepreneurial intention (SEI) that were suggested by an exploratory study. The research was conducted in the context of Thailand and was designed to investigate the effects of different …

Predicting Success And Failure Factors Of Thai Start-Ups: An Empirical Study Of Start-Up Success And Its Determinants In Thailand, Ajjaree Limpamont

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Innovation is crucial to economic growth in both developed and emerging countries across the world. Its benefits creates impact on individuals, corporate and government stakeholders in improving quality of lives, increasing income levels and boost up economics. While innovations are important, where, and how they are best conceived of, managed, executed, and brought to the society has been of great debate and has attracted a great deal of scholarly inquiry. There have been numerous research findings discussing the wisdom and impact of each of these pathways. While the business start-up is an effective organizational form for harnessing resources and creating …

Maritime Moves: The American Response To The South China Sea Conflict, Joshua Jachlewski

Senior Honors Theses

China is quickly becoming a world power and will soon reach parity with the United States. China has gotten far more aggressive in its expansion, which extends to the islands within the South China Sea. China claims most of this based on the Nine-Dash Line, in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As the current world superpower, the United States must respond to these claims given the geostrategic importance of the region. An analysis of the current Chinese and US positions, as well as those of the other littoral states with competing claims, allows …

The Influence Of The Thirty-Six Stratagems On Chinese Strategy In The Diaoyu Islands, Brent Schuliger

Senior Honors Theses

The Diaoyu Islands are a small, uninhabited archipelago in the East China Sea which has begun increasing in strategic significance due to its advantageous location near Taiwan and along the First Island Chain. The islands are currently under Japanese administration, but the People’s Republic of China considers them historically Chinese and contests Japan’s claim to the islands. A careful examination of China’s actions in challenging Japan’s rule over the Diaoyus reveals the influence of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, a tome of ancient Chinese military wisdom which provides a framework onto which China’s current strategy corresponds. This thesis examines the historical …

Important To Me And My Society: How Culture Influences The Roles Of Personal Values And Perceived Group Values In Environmental Engagements Via Collectivistic Orientation, Tengjiao Huang, Angela K. Y. Leung, Kimin Eom, Kam Pong Tam

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite extensive works examining the influence of personal values on environmental engagements, scarce research has examined the influence of group values that are perceived as important in the society. To address this lacuna and recent calls for more cross-cultural environmental research, we investigated whether and how culture, via collectivistic orientation, influences the roles of personal values and perceived group values, namely egoistic and biospheric values, in motivating environmental engagements in a Western (the U.S.; N = 469) and an Asian (Singapore; N = 410) country. To highlight a few findings, the study showed that personal values and perceived group values …

Class(Ify)Ing Christianity In Singapore: Tracing The Interlinked Spaces Of Privilege And Position, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how two facets of identity – religion and class – are performed, (re)produced and negotiated within the spaces of the Christian school, home and church in Singapore. We show how the social structuring of one space can inform and influence the structuring of another. Spaces of Christianity in Singapore tend to be mutually reinforcing, strengthening the linkages between religion and class, and in particular reifying the position of Christianity as a religion of the privileged classes. However, the ways in which Christian spaces are reified can become problematic when space is in fact shared with less privileged …

Wealth Accumulation By Hypogamy In Own And Parental Education In China, Cheng Cheng, Yang Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objective: This study examines how household wealth accumulation varies by different types of hypogamy on the basis of couples' own and parental education. Background: Educational hypogamy (wives having more education than their husbands) is increasingly relevant in many societies, given the reversal of the gender gap in education. Prior research has studied how marital sorting on couples' own education shapes their individual earnings trajectories. Few have examined the implications of marital sorting on parental education for family-level economic well-being. Method: Using data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multilevel growth curve models, this study examined how household wealth …

Natural Disasters And Domestic Violence?: A Study Of The 2015 Nepal Earthquake, Arpita Khanna, Tomoki Fujii

Research Collection School Of Economics

This study estimates the impact of exposure to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake on intimate partner violence with two rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys data. Using differences-in-differences estimation, we find that exposure to the earthquake lead to a statistically and economically significant increase in intimate partner violence in the urban areas but not in the rural areas. This is possibly due to an increase in the stress felt by the earthquake victims. We also offer some evidence that the impact heterogeneity between the urban and rural areas is attributable to the differences in the reconstruction processes and assistance provided.

The Torrens System In Singapore: 75 Years From Conception To Commencement, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article tells the story of how the Torrens system of land titles registration came to be adopted in Singapore. From conception to commencement, the entire process took over 75 years, far longer than any other law reform the country has experienced. Particular attention is paid to why the Australian model was preferred despite the significant influence of English law in colonial Singapore. Although as with anything, much of what happened could be attributed to chance, a great deal can be learned from this story, which details the socio-economic and political forces that have shaped the law into what it …

Aestheticized Temples, Rationalized Affects: Sacred Modernities And The Micro-Regulation Of Hinduism In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper develops the idea of “sacred modernities” to explore how the state- led regulation of religion shapes religious communities and religious subjects therein. Sacred modernities define the ways in which sacredness is understood and engaged with under conditions of secular modernity, and in particular, how sacredness is experienced within a context of micro-regulated religious space. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical examination of how Singapore’s Hindu community engages with the idea of sacredness in and through the temple. By contrasting the experiences of Singaporean and non-Singaporean Hindus, we argue that Singapore’s temples offer an aestheticized experience of the …